this is co-sponsored by george mason university and the bipartisan policy center. it is our pleasure to put this on and to recognize with all the frenzy about the fiscal cliff that we have a history. some of the history is successful in resolving deep seated hard choices. that is will we will look back and talk about today and see whether we can learn any lessons from the experience. we will go over the detailed program in a few minutes. i want to introduce our keynote speaker tom davis. he has covered many basis. he was the county executive of fairfax county. he was the representative to congress and became a chair and it did many important hearings and remains very active as a speaker and a policy observer. he is also on our faculty where he teaches a course on southern politics that fills up five a minute after students get to register. a very popular lecture. tom will kick it off and i will come back and talk about the detailed program and we will give started. >> thank you very much. i left congress undefeated and unindicted. i just want to welcome you on beha